From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bootleg recording is an audio and/or video recording of a performance that was not
officially released by the artist, or under other legal
authority.[1] The
process of making and distributing such recordings is known as
bootlegging. A great many such recordings are
simply copied and traded among fans of the artist
without financial exchange, but some bootleggers are able to sell
these rarities for profit, sometimes by adding professional-quality
sound engineering and packaging to the raw material.

Bootlegs can consist of recordings of live performances, or
material created in private or professional recording sessions.
Changing technologies have had a great impact on the recording,
distribution, and varying profitability of the underground
industry. The copyrights
for the song and the right to authorize recordings often reside
with the artist, according to several international copyright treaties. The recording, trading
and sale of bootlegs continues to thrive, however, even as artists
and record companies attempt to provide "authorized" alternatives
to satisfy the demand.

The audio cassette greatly increased the
distribution of bootleg recordings in the 1980s.

Definitions

Some artists consider any release for which they do not receive
royalties to be
equivalent to a bootleg, even if it is an officially licensed
release. This is often the case with artists whose recordings have
either become public
domain or whose original agreements did not include reissue royalties (which was a
common occurrence before the 1960s).

Many bootlegs consist of private or professional studio
recordings distributed without the artist's involvement, including
demos,
works-in-progress or discarded material. These might be made from
private recordings not meant to be widely shared, or from master
recordings stolen or copied from an artist's home, a recording
studio or the offices of a record label. A number of bootlegs
originated with FM radio broadcasts of live or
previously recorded live performances.

However, the most common type is the live
bootleg, or audience recording, which is
created with sound recording equipment smuggled into a
live concert. Many artists
and most live venues prohibit this form of recording, but from the
1970s onwards the increased availability of portable technology
made such bootlegging increasingly easy, and as this technology has
improved so too has the general quality of these recordings.

The alternate term ROIO or
RoIO, an acronym meaning "Recording
of Indeterminate
Origin", or "Recording
of Independent
Origin", arose among Pink Floyd collectors trying to clarify the
differences between counterfeits, illegally made copies, live
bootlegs, and "ROIOs", meaning recordings whose legal status was
difficult or even impossible to determine. The term has spread
beyond Pink Floyd fans but its recognition and usage depends
largely on the individual community. It is also sometimes used to
denote a Pink Floyd recording of any kind.

History
of bootlegging

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1970s and
1980s

During the 1970s the bootleg industry in the United States
expanded rapidly, coinciding with the era of stadium rock or arena rock. Vast numbers
of recordings were issued for profit by bootleg labels such as Kornyfone and Trade Mark of Quality.[2]
The large followings of bands such as Deep Purple, Eric Burdon, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Rolling
Stones and Pink
Floyd created a lucrative market for the mass production of
unofficial recordings on vinyl, as it became evident that more
and more fans were willing to purchase them. In addition, the huge
crowds which turned up to these concerts made the effective
policing of the audience for the presence of covert recording
equipment virtually impossible.

In Los Angeles
there were a number of record mastering and pressing plants that
were not "first in line" to press records for the major labels,
usually only getting work when the larger plants were overloaded.
These pressing plants were more than happy to generate income by
pressing bootlegs of dubious legality. Sometimes they simply hid
the bootleg work when record company executives would come around
(in which case the printed label could show the artist and song
names) and other times secrecy required labels with fictitious
names. For example, a 1974 Pink Floyd bootleg called Brain
Damage was released under the name The Screaming Abdabs.[2]

Bootleg collectors in this era generally relied on Hot Wacks, an annual
underground magazine catalog of known bootlegs, for information
about recently released bootleg albums. It provided the true
information on releases with fictitious labels, and included
details on artists and track listings, as well as the source and
sound quality of the various recordings.

The market outlets for bootlegs-for-sale were varied. In the
early years, bootlegs could be bought from vendors lurking in the
alleys and parking lots around live venues, as well as at swap
meets, street
markets, record collector shows, and smaller record stores. Mail order sources were
advertised by word of mouth, and in many cases uniquely associated
with individual bands. There were major markets in Japan and Europe for Led Zeppelin bootleg
recordings, Beatles
bootlegs, and rarities from The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple,
Pink Floyd, KISS,
and Queen, among
others.

Throughout the 1970s most bootleg records were of poor quality,
with many of the album covers consisting of nothing more than cheap
photocopies. However, later in the decade a
number of unofficial "labels" such as Swinging Pig emerged in Europe, which released limited
editions of better quality recordings, with improved album artwork.
This trend in enhanced audio and packaging standards continued into
the 1980s.[3]

The 1980s saw the increased use of audio cassettes and
videotapes for the
dissemination of bootleg recordings, as the affordability of
private dubbing
equipment made the production of multiple copies significantly
easier. Cassettes were also smaller, easier to ship, and could be
sold or traded more affordably than vinyl. Cassette
culture and tape
trading, propelled by the DIY ethic of the punk subculture, relied on an honor system where
people who received tapes from fellow traders made multiple copies
to pass on to others within the community.

For a while, stalls at major music gatherings such as the Glastonbury Festival sold mass
copies of bootleg soundboard recordings of bands who, in many
cases, had played only a matter of hours beforehand. However,
officials soon began to counteract this illegal activity by making
raids on the stalls and, by the end of the 1980s, the number of
festival bootlegs had consequently dwindled.[3]

According to Clinton Heylin, author of Bootleg: The Rise
& Fall of the Secret Recording History, the five most
bootlegged artists are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling
Stones, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.[4]
Probably the most celebrated bootleg recording is The Black Album by Prince. The
album was to have been a conventional major-label release but was
pulled back from the market almost immediately after its initial
release in November 1987. Bootlegs appeared shortly thereafter from
a variety of sources and with widely different sound qualities.
Reportedly, over 500,000 copies were sold.

1990s and
2000s

In the 1990s, there was a widespread conversion of many of the
older bootlegs onto the compact disc format.
Unofficial recordings became more readily available than ever
before, resulting in thousands of bootlegs being circulated on CD
amongst avid collectors and fans, in many cases of shows which had
been originally recorded over thirty years previously. In
particular, companies in Germany and Italy exploited the more relaxed copyright laws in those
countries by pressing large numbers of CDs and including catalogs
of other titles on the inlays, making it easier for fans to find
and order shows direct.[3]
Similarly, relaxed copyright laws in Australia meant that the most
serious legal challenge to unauthorized releases were made on the
grounds of trademark law
by Sony Music Entertainment in
1993. Court findings were in favor of allowing the release of
unauthorized recordings clearly marked as "unauthorised". However,
the updated GATT 1994 soon
closed this so-called "protection gap" in all three aforementioned
countries effective January 1, 1995.[4]

Filling in the vacuum, with the Internet expanding, bootleg websites and
mailing lists began to appear, including public websites catering
to collectors who exchanged tapes and CDs free of charge, and
surreptitious ones devoted to the sale of bootlegs for profit.

During this period, composer Jerry Goldsmith became well-known for
physically smashing bootleg CDs presented to him to sign. A German outfit called Tsunami
Records was prolifically selling unauthorized recordings of
Goldsmith's music for prices that generally exceeded standard
retail for a single disc.

The tightening of laws and increased enforcement by police on
behalf of the British Phonographic
Industry (BPI), Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other industry
groups—often for peripheral issues such as tax evasion—gradually
drove the distributors of for-profit vinyl and CD bootlegs further
underground.[3]
Physical bootlegging largely shifted to less regulated countries
such as Hong Kong, Russia and Brazil, with the results distributed through
existing underground channels, open market sites such as eBay, and other specialized
websites.

However, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw an increase in the
free trading of digital bootlegs, sharply decreasing the demand for
and profitability of physical bootlegs. The rise of standard audio file
formats such as MP3 and FLAC, combined with the
ability to share files between computers via e-mail, FTP, instant
messaging, and specialized peer-to-peerfile sharing networks such as Napster (now defunct as p2p), Limewire, Soulseek and BitTorrent, made it simpler than
ever for bootleg collectors to exchange rarities. Older analog
recordings were converted to digital format for the first time,
tracks from bootleg CDs were ripped to computer hard disks, and new material
was created with digital recording of various types,
and all of these types could now be easily shared. The quality and
portability of recording devices and microphones also increased
exponentially, resulting in recordings which were often on a par
with official releases. One notable change caused by this shift in
technology was the unit of exchange: instead of album-length
collections or live recordings of entire shows, fans often now had
the option of searching for and downloading bootlegs of
individual songs.[5]

Legal
issues

Bootlegging vs.
piracy vs. counterfeiting

An illegally copied release is distinguished from a counterfeit.
Counterfeits attempt to mimic the look of officially released
product; illegally copied releases do not necessarily do so,
possibly substituting cover art or creating new compilations of a
group's released songs. A counterfeit is always an illegal copy but
an illegal copy is not necessarily a counterfeit.

"Bootlegging" is sometimes also used to refer to the unlicensed
file sharing of copyrighted music but the
term illegal copying or "piracy" is usually used instead. In the
same vein, "bootlegging" has become the default term amongst
Japanese anime fans to describe
the piracy or counterfeiting of CDs, DVDs,
computer and video
games, arcade
games, and other merchandise. These increasingly sophisticated
imitation goods from Hong
Kong are much reviled by fans and the industry alike, and many
anime fan
conventions have adopted a strict non-bootleg policy for
vendors and attendees.

Laws and
court rulings

The
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works has protected the copyrights on literary, scientific, and
artistic works since 1886. Article 9 of the Convention states that:
Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this
Convention shall have the exclusive right of authorizing the
reproduction of these works, in any manner or form. [...] Any sound
or visual recording shall be considered as a reproduction for the
purposes of this Convention.[6]

The World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), founded in 1967, is one of the
specialized agencies of the United Nations, aiming for the
international protection of intellectual property rights.
According to Article 6 of the international WIPO Performances
and Phonograms Treaty of 1996, all performers own the rights to
their own performances: "Performers shall enjoy the exclusive
right of authorizing, as regards their performances: (i) the
broadcasting and communication to the public of their unfixed
performances except where the performance is already a broadcast
performance; and (ii) the fixation of their unfixed
performances."[7]
The
WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties
Implementation Act in the United States says "(a), unless
authorized by the owners of copyright in the sound recording or
[...] in the musical works embodied therein, neither the owner of a
particular phonorecord [...] may, for the purposes of direct or
indirect commercial advantage, dispose of, or authorize the
disposal of, the possession of that phonorecord [...] by rental,
lease, or lending, or by any other act or practice in the nature of
rental, lease, or lending."[8]

Most artists have made little effort to pursue legal action
about bootleg recordings, viewing such "rarities trading" as
harmless provided that it is not being done for profit. The
benefits of interfering with such trading are fairly minimal
compared to the potential ill-will generated against the artist, as
the illicit works are generally circulated among the artist's most
loyal fans, which have the most interest. Most record companies
also have not shown an interest in pursuing or prosecuting
small-scale bootleggers, but this could change at any time.

However, in 2004 U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. struck down
a 1994 law banning the sale of bootleg recordings of live music,
ruling that the law unfairly grants a seemingly perpetual copyright
period to the original performances.[9] He
dismissed a federal indictment of Jean Martignon, who was running a
Manhattan mail-order and Internet business that sells bootleg
recordings. The Recording Industry Association of America disagreed
with the ruling, saying the decision "stands in marked contrast to
existing law and prior decisions that have determined that Congress
was well within its constitutional authority to adopt legislation
that prevented trafficking in copies of unauthorized recordings of
live performances", according to spokesman Jonathan Lamy.[10] In
2007, Judge Baer's ruling was overruled, and the 2nd Circuit of the
US Court of Appeals found that the anti-bootlegging statute was
within the power of congress. 492 F. 3d 140

Legal alternatives
to illicit bootlegging

Artists and record companies have attempted to find ways to
provide authorized alternatives to satisfy consumer demand for
bootleg recordings, including the marketing of their own live albums and rarities
collections.

Authorized live bootlegs

An increasing number of artists have decided to allow and
encourage live audience recording, although they and their fans
generally consider the selling of such recordings—as
opposed to keeping them for one's own personal enjoyment or trading
them for other audience recordings—to be illegitimate bootlegging.
Fans cite the encouragement of these recordings as a key factor in
their long-term loyalty to these bands.

In addition, many performers have made joking suggestions to
bootleggers presumably in the audience, especially when a new or
unusual song is about to be performed. Fans often hopefully cite
such comments as evidence of permission to make bootleg
recordings.

Instant
live bootlegs

In the early 2000s, artists responded to the demand for bootleg
concert recordings by experimenting with the sale of authorized
bootlegs made directly from the unmixed soundboard feeds, or from on the flymultitrack mixes, and thus
superior to surreptitious audience recordings which are typically
marred by crowd noise. These releases were generally available a
few days to a few weeks after the concert.[11].
Notable examples include Genesis, and Peter Gabriel, who has
released such copies of live recordings for most of his concerts
since 2003.KISS recorded their shows and sold the copies right
after the concert was over during their 2008 world tour.

In the mid-2000s, improving technology in high-speed CD
reproduction made some of these "official boots" available to
audience members immediately as they leave the concert; some
companies can begin selling complete concert CDs less than ten
minutes after the end of the show.[12]
However, a key patent in the process (that of dividing the single
recording into discrete digitally marked tracks during recording)
was bought by media giant Clear Channel
Communications, which sued smaller competitors for patent
infringement to force them out of the business. When Clear
Channel divested its live entertainment business into the spin off
company Live Nation
in 2005, the patents were transferred as well. The patent (U.S. Patent
6,917,566) was revoked by the USPTO in 2007 after
challenges filed by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.[13]

Commercially released
bootlegs

Many recordings first distributed as bootleg albums were later
released officially by the copyright holder; for instance, the
release of Bob Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert on
Vol. 4 of his Bootleg Series in 1998 effectively killed the demand
for bootlegs of the concert. In 2002, Dave Matthews Band released
Busted Stuff in response to the Internet-fueled success of
The Lillywhite Sessions
which they had not intended to release. Queen are slowly releasing 100 bootlegs
for sale as downloads at their Online Store, with profits going to
the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Although he is
opposed to illegitimate recording of his concerts Robert Fripp's
DGMlive.com offers many King Crimson bootlegs for sale as
downloads.

Scandinavian Nights (recorded in Stockholm in 1970) and several
other bootlegs of early Deep Purple performances have been
remastered and "officially" released by the Deep Purple
Appreciation Society and Purple Records, including Aachen 1970,
Montreux 1969, and the In Concert 1970/72 recordings, which were
taken from BBC Radio Broadcasts.

Material from three different 1969 sessions and a 1971 concert
from the Paris
Theatre in London,
recorded by the BBC. Countless
bootlegs of these recordings circulated for years before the
official release.

Special features include Bootlegging the Bootleggers,
assembled from video provided by Pink Floyd historian Vernon Fitch, combined
with official soundboard recordings, and edited together. The
bootleg of The Dark Side of the Moon was
issued a mere six weeks after the concert, about a full year prior
to an official release. Professionally packaged, the unit
reportedly sold in excess of 100,000 copies, many thinking it was
the real thing.

The Million Dollar Quartet session took place on December 4,
1956 at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The session was
performed by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl
Perkins. This was first released on bootleg in 1981 with only 17
tracks. It was released more times over the years until 1990 when
RCA released the copy of the tape which was owned by Elvis. 2006
saw the release of more of the session.

The New Year's Eve concert from 1976 was one of Elvis' longest
shows. This was release was an audience recording in 1977 as the
name of Rockin' With Elvis On New Year's Eve. It was a two
LP set and is considered as one of the best audience recordings. In
2003 the exact same source tape was used for the FTD/RCA release of
New Year's Eve.

The Funny Side of Elvis and The King Goes Bananas are
audience recordings from September 3, 1973 Closing Show in Vegas
that was release in the 90s. One of Elvis' most unusual concerts in
his career with Elvis clowning around on most of the songs. Most of
the soundboard of this show was release in 2004 by FTD/RCA under
the name Closing Night.

During the movie Elvis On Tour, Elvis did a show on
April 18, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas. Three songs are seen in the
movie. This was release as a soundboard in 1993 under the name
Welcome to San Antone under the Vicky label but RCA release the
stereo source tape of this show on Disc 4 in the box set Close Up
in 2003.

The show from May 13 1973 in Lake Tahoe was release sometime in
the 90s as an audience recording but in 2003 the soundboard of the
show was release under the FTD/RCA label as Takin' Tahoe Night.

FTD release Southern Nights with many songs from
various bootlegs that comes from April, May and June 1975. The
songs are from Atlanta, Macon, Memphis, Houston, Lake Charles,
Huntsville and Mobile.

FTD release Unchained Melody has songs from some
bootlegs as well. One that stands out the most is Where No One
Stands Alone. This was the only time he sung that song ever.

An official recording released (despite leader John Lydon's declared
hatred for live albums)[14]
specifically to suppress bootlegs from that tour,[14][15]
including one of the two concerts from which these uncirculated
soundboards were taken.[16]

Most included concerts were at some point released as
commercial bootlegs, but the released versions in these series are
based on the Tangerine Tree project. Confusingly, two
of the nine volumes in the Bootmoon series (Cleveland and Brighton
1986) were however from the band's official live recording
archives, and also included in their "Vault" series of
releases.